Doug Stamper had a tough season of “House of Cards,” but for the actor who plays him, Michael Kelly, it was a good one – one that on Thursday resulted in an Emmy nomination.

Michael joined his co-stars Kevin Spacey (President Frank Underwood) and Robin Wright (Claire Underwood) in the nominee field. The well-deserved honor came after his third season of playing Doug, as the President’s fixer worked to overcome a traumatic brain injury, all the while scheming and plotting to get his place back alongside his commander in chief.

PHOTOS: ‘House Of Cards’ Stars

On Thursday, a very-happy Michael took a break from filming Season 4 of his celebrated Netflix drama to chat with Access Hollywood about being nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor. (He was nominated in the same category as “Better Call Saul’s” Jonathan Banks, “Bloodline’s” Ben Mendelsohn, “Downton Abbey’s” Jim Carter, Peter Dinklage from “Game of Thrones” and Alan Cumming from “The Good Wife.”)

AccessHollywood.com: You must have been so happy when you got the news today! Where were you?Michael Kelly: I was on set, and we’re here filming Season 4, and Robin [Wright] is directing, and Kevin [Spacey] and Derek [Cecil] and I were in a scene together, and we were turning around, so we had a little break and Kevin was like, ‘They’re about to announce Emmys. Let’s go to my trailer.’ So we went to his trailer, he turned it on and literally it was just coming on, so of course, we’re high-fiving Kevin, he got one, and then Robin got one, and [the] show got one, and then it was like, ‘And go to our website for the rest of them.’ … And then they call us back to set, we go back to set, and we were getting ready to start shooting the scene and Beau Willimon, our showrunner/writer walked in and was like, ‘Hey everybody, I just want to say congratulations. The whole crew, we’ve all been together from the beginning and we all love each other so much, and he was like, ‘Congratulations to everyone on the crew, the show’s been nominated, of course Kevin’s been nominated, Robin was nominated,’ and he turned to me and he was like, ‘And you!’ And I was like, ‘What?’ like, ‘Oh my God!’ … To be there with that family that you’ve been with now for four seasons, and to share that moment with him was just so incredible because obviously it wouldn’t have happened without everybody in that room pitching in, so it was such an incredible, incredible moment and I got tears in my eyes. I was like, ‘I’ve got to focus. I’ve got to try and do this scene now and I just got nominated for an Emmy. Oh my God!’ I just felt so blessed. So blessed.

Access: Did you tell your kids [who got to appear in an episode of ‘HoC’ Season 3] yet?Michael: I haven’t talked to my kids. They’re in summer camp, but I talked to my wife. I called her. … She picked up, she’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ I was like, ‘Thank you, you know, this is not possible without you letting me go to Baltimore, live in that dark, Doug Stamper world and then come home and be with the family when I can,’ and she was just balling. She was like, ‘I’ve been crying for an hour!’ And then I talked to my mom and dad and they were crying. I just feel so blessed, man.

Access: What have you said to Beau then, since he wrote you this great material?Michael: Just, ‘Thank you, man. Thank you.’ I’m so grateful to Beau Willimon, and that writing staff. You dream of getting jobs like this. … You never think that you’re gonna get a gift like Doug Stamper. I’ve been given the greatest gift by those guys as an actor and to be able to play that role, you know, a lot of people don’t get a chance like that and so I wanted to do everything I could to be as good as I could be because it is a gift and I am very fortunate to be doing what I want to do for a living, but then to be able to play such an incredibly interesting character on top of it, I’m so thankful to him and to all the writers

Access: What are you going to do tonight? What are your plans because you’ve got to celebrate, right?Michael: Yeah, I mean, I work tomorrow, so I can’t go too crazy, but I’ll probably just go to the local pub we always go to, and have a couple beers and see if Beau wants to come out and I can maybe take him to dinner or something, just to say thanks, but there’s definitely a few beers in the night’s forecast.

Access: I don’t know how you’re going to get back into Doug today because you sound so happy.Michael: I know. I am so fricking giddy, it’s ridiculous.

READ: Emmy Nominations 2015: The Stars React

The Emmy Awards air September 20, 2015 on Fox.

— Jolie Lash

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